Apex bank moots GIRO-based bill payments system in India

India will soon witness a centralised infrastructure bringing all billers and banks on the billing platform through aggregators, which will allow interoperability in the bill payment process, enabling consumers to make payments from anywhere.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday released the report of the committee — headed by G Padmabhan, RBI’s executive director — set up to study the feasibility of implementation of GIRO-based payment transfer systems. The committee highlighted the need for developing an electronic bill payment system based on a GIRO (or Government Internal Revenue Order) model for payment of dues of essential services, insurance premia, utility payments, taxes, university fees, examination fees, school fees, etc. Consumers will now be enabled to make payments at any of the collection points which is the essence of GIRO system. 

A GIRO payment is a credit push transaction initiated by the payer and may involve the presence of three banks (collecting bank, payer bank and the payee bank).

Also, bill paying public/customers can access any payment channel through banks/non-bank entity under the proposed system. Major recommendations made by the committee envisage setting up an Indian Bill Payment System (IBPS) which will be the centralised infrastructure connecting billers through aggregators and customers via customer service points, for management of all  bill payments.

Bill data codification and presentment apart, it also recommends the process of settlement and roles as well as responsibilities of stakeholders, besides customer support and redressal mechanism.